Independent MLA Kezia Purick’s unfounded claims at an international tobacco conference that the Australian Cancer Council and the Heart Foundation are opposed to vaping because they “don’t have enough evidence” about the dangers of e-cigarettes have been refuted by the national organisations.

Ms Purick attended the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum in September as a guest of Big Tobacco with her flight and accommodation paid for, she has claimed, which may have breached an international World Health Organisation treaty that forbids public officials from fratenising with the tobacco industry.

At the conference in Seoul, South Korea, Ms Purick told attendees from around the world – on a panel moderated by the former director of public affairs for tobacco giant Phillip Morris – that the Australian Cancer Council and National Heart Foundation have taken “a strong role and lead in opposition to vaping”.

“Maybe they don’t have enough information, they don’t have enough evidence before them, I’m not sure,” she said.

She later suggested to conference attendees that “prescription vaping can be a part of a solution to the issue [of smoking] in Aboriginal communities”.

However, the Cancer Council refuted Ms Purick’s claims that they do not have enough evidence to advise against the use of vaping products.

“Cancer Council is an evidence-informed organisation, and our position is based on the latest evidence such as the Medical Journal of Australia’s most recent systematic review, providing public health advice on the safety and impacts of e-cigarettes,” Alecia Brooks, chair of the council’s Tobacco Issues Committee, told the NT Independent.

“This study is the most comprehensive review of its kind to date and recognises that for the overwhelming majority of Australians (89 per cent) who do not smoke, e-cigarettes are not safe and threaten Australia’s hard fought tobacco control successes.”

Ms Brooks added that the Cancer Council advocates for a “comprehensive approach that reduces supply and access to e-cigarettes” and also said reducing smoking rates in Aboriginal communities would take a lot of effort.

“To continue and accelerate the decline in the prevalence of tobacco use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Cancer Council recommends substantial long-term investment in activities that are culturally appropriate and community led,” she said.

“History has shown that every attempted incremental improvement in tobacco control policy has been met with resistance and interference from those that have commercially vested interests: tobacco industry and pro-industry lobby groups.

“We encourage policy makers to protect Australians from these commercial interests, with policy reflecting public health and medical evidence to protect all Australians.”

The Heart Foundation also told the NT Independent that there is strong evidence that shows e-cigarettes and vapes contain a range of toxic chemicals that are harmful to people and not something that should be encouraged.

“There is firm evidence to show that e-cigarettes and vapes cause serious adverse health effects to those that use them, as well as acting as a gateway to tobacco smoking,” said Professor Gary Jennings, the Heart Foundation’s chief medical advisor, in an email responding to Ms Purick’s claims.

“E-cigarettes and vapes may contain a range of chemicals and toxins that can cause poisoning, acute nicotine toxicity, seizures, burns and injuries, lung injury, as well as having adverse effects on blood pressure and heart rate.

“These devices should only made be available as a therapeutic aid, prescribed by a GP, to help those who are trying to quit smoking.”

‘They wanted to hear my views’: Purick

Ms Purick claimed that she was invited by Big Tobacco to attend the conference because “they wanted to hear my views” on tobacco and vaping and that she used the conference to learn about the industry. She also said she had read an “article” by the Menzie’s School of Health on Indigenous smoking rates before attending the conference so she was informed.

She also claimed she was hoping to pick up tips on how to prevent and reduce smoking rates in Indigenous communities while at the forum, a claim that was ridiculed by another leading health policy professor who said this week that Ms Purick was ignorant of how Big Tobacco conferences work if she believed she would pick up clues on how to reduce smoking rates.

In a defiant radio interview on ABC Darwin on Tuesday evening, Ms Purick claimed anyone criticising her for taking the tobacco industry-funded trip as a politician “don’t know me” and that she “was probably the only person at that conference of maybe about 250 people that wasn’t on the industry side”.

However, just a moment earlier, Ms Purick said in the interview there were Australian and international doctors at the event that were “not there supporting the smoking industry”, but that she did not “have permission” to name them.

She also said she was invited to attend the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum through contacts she made through the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association while speaker of the NT Legislative Assembly, who knew about her work on a short-lived NT parliamentary committee into vaping that was shut down in May, after just two months.

She also claimed she was not aware of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which Australia is a signatory with 180 other countries, that forbids public officials from mingling with tobacco industry representatives.

“I have no idea, I don’t know about the ban!” she said. “And if there is such a ban then perhaps he (Prof Simon Chapman) can send me some information because it’s no good presuming to assuming, which he is doing. If there is a ban, well, show me the information.”

Asked what she learned while at the conference in South Korea that would be of benefit to Territorians, Ms Purick responded: “There’s programs in New Zealand – a couple of programs and I’m getting more information sent to me that I learnt from the gentleman who does a lot of work in New Zealand [in cutting Indigenous smoking rates]…So maybe we can learn from that.”

Ms Purick was also asked to explain her comments about the Cancer Council and the Heart Foundation at the forum.

“I’m not sure what I was trying to point out,” she said.

“To enlighten some of the audience, because we’re talking about people around the world as to the kind of organisations that we operate and have in Australia that work very diligently in regards to improving the health outcomes for all Australians. So, I wasn’t demeaning them by saying they don’t have enough information to support their position … That’s all I can think of.”

The costs of the trip and other “gifts or gratuities” she received for attending the conference will not be released until her updated Register of Members’ Interests forms are disclosed next March. She refused to say how much the trip cost but said it would not affect her ability to remain independent if vaping laws come up in NT Parliament.

Ms Purick resigned in disgrace as speaker in June 2020, after an ICAC investigation found she engaged in “corrupt conduct” to prevent the establishment of a new political party by using public resources for her own political gains.